A huge winter storm blasting through Central Canada is being blamed for a huge accident in Quebec. As many as 20 vehicles were involved in a highway pileup that injured at least 10 people.

The fierce weather isn't expected to let up until Sunday morning.

In the Toronto region, near-blizzard-like conditions led to more than 500 traffic accidents being reported early Saturday. Upwards of 30 centimetres of snow were expected in most of southern Ontario, before the storm system moved into Quebec and the Maritimes. Some areas were expecting as much as 50 centimetres.

Environment Canada had issued weather warnings from Windsor, Ont., all the way to Newfoundland. Police asked motorists to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary because the snow combined with strong winds reduced visibility and made for slick roads.

The storm, which came as many Ontarians just finished shovelling away the last major snowfall, stymied many March break travel plans.

Toronto's Pearson Airport experienced numerous delays and about 100 cancellations Saturday.

Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport had cancelled about 90 flights by the evening, many of them affected by bad weather in cities such as Chicago and New York, which were also pounded by storms. Dozens more flights have been delayed.

Montreal drivers didn't fair much better. Visibility on the roads was almost zero in some areas. The storm could help Toronto set a new snowfall record. The old record, set 70 years ago, is 207 centimetres. Prior to Friday's snowfall, the city had 170 centimetres of snow.

Ottawa has already had a whopping 360 centimetres of snow this winter, but that still pales to the 444 centimetres that dropped there in 1971.

Other Canadian cities such as Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and Bathurst, N.B., have already been hit with more than 400 centimetres of snow this winter.

This is a La Nina winter, which means that cooler-than-normal surface sea temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. Weather experts say that could be driving some of the extreme weather over Canada.

Storm kills three in U.S.

The massive storm system was also responsible for three deaths and hundreds of accidents in the U.S. before it moved into Central Canada.

Arkansas received 30 centimetres of snow, Florida was hit by tornadoes, and the storm drenched southeastern states with heavy rains.

The storm pounded the U.S. on Friday, slamming into unlikely southern states like Texas and Alabama.

Two people died in Florida after tornadoes struck the state. One person died in Ohio as near-blizzard conditions resulted in more than 610 accidents Friday.